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Taliban video calls for jihad against US
Now available at Kabul BlockBuster:The Taliban have released their first video containing footage of attacks on US troops and Afghan militia in southern Afghanistan and appeals to Afghans "to come out and wage a jihad against the United States". "Jihadiâs, come out and play!" The 22-minute video copied on compact discs, the first from the Taliban following a US-led invasion of Afghanistan, contains poems lamenting the fall of their regime and commentator narrating the plight of Muslims all over the world at the hands of "Hindus, Christians and Jews" in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechenya and Palestine. The video containing propaganda stuff is the latest by group opposed to the US presence in Afghanistan. Hizb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar released his own video statement narrating the instances when he narrowly escaped the hunt by US troops and renewing his pledge to continue fighting until foreign forces were evicted from Afghanistan. So this is a different video than Hekâs. The Taliban had released a similar video of their operations in southwestern Afghanistan that included the footage showing the kidnapping of Turkish engineer. It is also the first video from Taliban, who were generally averse to filming of living beings which they thought was against the edicts of Islam. The Taliban regime under their supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar had closed down television and banned music. Guess they needed to drum up support. An Afghan familiar with the situation in Paktia province remarked how Taliban insurgents ruled the night in Afghanistanâs volatile southern province bordering Pakistan. "The day belongs to Americans and their Afghan allies. People drive in their vehicles playing music. Music cassettes are replaced by religious audios as the night falls when the Taliban come out and set up check points." The reasonably well edited video titled Pasoon (Uprising) in Pushto, apart from showing clips and footage borrowed from western and Arab news channels of the US and Israeli "excesses" in Iraq and Palestine, also contains some shots of Taliban fighters in action against US and allied Afghan forces in Afghanistanâs Paktia province. Bet theyâre staged, a little editing can do wonders. Central figure in the video, however, is a 26-year-old young man, Abdul Qadir, a Wazir tribesman from Wana in South Waziristan tribal region, who is shown carrying out the attacks and planting a landmine that blows up a pickup truck purportedly killing six Afghan militiamen. Note the "purportedly", the reporter doesnât buy it either. Mr Qadir, says the commentator, was killed while battling American soldiers in Birmal district in Paktia province on Aug 28. "Abdul Qadir was a hero and a brave mujahid." Now heâs just a dead mujahid. It also shows father and brothers of Abdul Qadir pledging to offer more sacrifices to evict "infidels" from Afghanistan. "I have seven sons. One has embraced martyrdom in the way of Allah. It is now the turn of my second son. I will give away my remaining sons one by one in the way of jihad," vows Abdul Qadirâs father. Why donât you go yourself and save your sons? Qadirâs younger brother, clutching a Kalashnikov, is shown on the video, pledging to follow in the footsteps of his deceased brother. The video opens and closes with an elegy lamenting the fall of Taliban.
Posted by: Steve 2003-12-17 |
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